"People often believe that they own the images that are tattooed on them by tattoo artists," explained Escobedo's lawyer, Maria Crimi Speth (in a comment on PRWeb).

"In reality, the owner of the tattoo artwork is the creator of the work, unless there is a written assignment of the copyright in the tattoo art."

How the fuck does that work unless you walk in and say 'I dunno what I want just tattoo any old thing on me!' Now I may not have had the talent to draw my pieces but they were conceived of by me and the artists drew them out as I related what I wanted in painstaking detail and several revisions. They're just somebody I commissioned to provide me a service. It sure as shit isn't their property.

That's exactly what the quote you pasted says. "The owner of the tattoo artwork is the creator of the work". I would assume that the lawyer is claiming that most people don't create their own tattoos, or, at least in this case it was the artist that created it.